Two neighborhoods that have witnessed a growing number of foreclosures — North Minneapolis and Dayton’s Bluff in St. Paul — will host dueling house tours on Sunday in hopes of showcasing deals created by the dramatic decline in home prices.

In North Minneapolis, the focus on foreclosures is somewhat incidental. Organizers set out to display at least six properties available for less than $100,000 and found that about 75 percent of the homes they likely will show are in some state of foreclosure.

In Dayton’s Bluff, the Sunday tour is a repeat of an effort in May designed to direct buyers to vacant and foreclosed properties in the neighborhood. That earlier tour — in which potential homebuyers could ride a trolley between 12 properties — drew about 300 people and resulted in eight sales.

“There’ll be a trolley again, because people loved it,” said Karin DuPaul, a tour organizer with the Dayton’s Bluff District 4 Community Council.

A study this month from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors found 69 percent of the 342 homes on the market in North Minneapolis this month were “lender-mediated” listings, meaning the homes either were in foreclosure or were being sold as part of a short sale agreement prior to foreclosure. The rate of such listings in North Minneapolis was highest among all communities in the 13-county metropolitan area.

The situation hasn’t been quite that dire in Dayton’s Bluff, where real estate listings for about 43 percent of the 156 single-family homes on the market are believed to be in some stage of foreclosure, according to a survey Friday by the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors. The study from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, however, found both the rate and raw number of lender-mediated listings like foreclosures in a group of northeast St. Paul neighborhoods including Dayton’s Bluff increased between April and October.

Matt Mazanec, a real estate agent with IBR Realty who worked on the Dayton’s Bluff tour, put a positive spin on the foreclosure situation. “Prices are just so low, it seems almost ridiculous to pass up such good offers,” he said.

The eight houses scheduled to be shown Sunday are registered as vacant homes with the city. Asking prices for the properties range from $34,900 to $149,900.

One listing scheduled for the Dayton’s Bluff tour — a home at 733 Conway St. — is an example of the reversal of fortune in housing prices.

Built in 1880, the four-bedroom, two-bath duplex sold in September 2006 for $240,000. On Friday, the bank trying to sell the property lowered the asking price to $60,900, said Steve Jecha, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Minneapolis who is marketing the duplex.

Such discounts aren’t surprising to real estate agents in this market.

“I had one in North Minneapolis that sold for $187,000 about 18 months ago,” Jecha said. “It just sold again for $22,000.”

Joel Breeggemann, a corporate event planner who lives in North Minneapolis, said he started thinking about organizing house tours in his neighborhood in April “when the foreclosure crisis started hitting.” In conjunction with a group he founded called NoMi, Breeggemann has since organized three tours that have focused on a variety of homes, from foreclosures to higher-priced owner-occupied properties.

Whereas the Dayton’s Bluff event invites people to pick up materials at a neighborhood office and either ride the trolley or drive themselves to the various homes on the tour, the North Minneapolis events begin with a presentation about the community in a restaurant or coffee shop. That’s why Breeggemann asks that people RSVP if they’re interested in attending.

“I’m trying to focus this one on homes $100,000 or less,” he said. “In the past, we’ve done everything from $40,000 foreclosures all the way up to a $390,000 home.”

Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at 651-228-5479.

IF YOU GO

For more information about the Dayton’s Bluff tour, go to daytonsbluff.org. The tour lasts from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Maps with house information will be available between those hours at the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council office at 798 E. 7th St.

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